Most of us tabletop gamers are familiar with “Pandemic” and “Forbidden Island” as they are (what I consider to be) staples in the cooperative genre. Instead of curing diseases or getting off a sinking island, what if you all had to work together to outwit an alien tesseract that was removing bits of itself to destroy Earth? To make matters worse, Will Smith and Jeff Goldbloom aren’t around this time to blow up a mothership. I’m pretty sure I’ve used that joke before, so props if you can find it in a previous article. I’m old and don’t remember such things. Special thanks to Kurt over at Smirk & Dagger Games for providing me with a copy of the game for review purposes.
1-4 Players, Ages 14+, Average Play Time = 1 Hour
Components & Setup
In the last article I simply included a screenshot of the components and from here on out, that’s what I’ll be doing. It makes my tendonitis less grouchy. You can find the above page and the rest of the rulebook here:
https://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/248344/rules-v1ks
To overview setup, each player will receive a researcher / character card that depicts a special ability, along with a player lab board and a level 2 research card. Players choose the difficulty of the base plate and put it on the lazy susan / base platform. The tesseract is assembled by dropping the dice into the dice setup sleeve which is temporarily mounted on the platform board. Six random containment cards are dealt face-down near the containment board, each assigned a number 1-6. There’s more, but that’s the jist…again, the rulebook link is above and our playthrough videos are below should you have further questions.
Gameplay
In true cooperative board game fashion, players do stuff, the game then tries to kill you (not literally), and you rinse and repeat until you win or lose.
A player’s turn is divided into two phases:
1. ACTION PHASE: The player takes three actions from a list of six, though they are able to repeat actions and perform them in any order they want.
Remove: The player may remove a die from the tesseract so as long as at least three sides are exposed and places it into their lab storage (limit six dice). This is assuming they have room in their lab to do so.
Adjust: The player may adjust a die by 1 value (you cannot wrap around from 1-6 and vice versa) in their lab or in the primed area. Dice can be adjust to “0” in the primed area, destroying it. More on that shortly.
Transfer: The player can give a die from their lab to another player so as long as they have space in their lab, and vice versa.
Study: The player can discard a research card to draw a new one of the next highest value (a level 1 card becomes a level 2, etc.). The higher the level of the card, the stronger it is.
Unique: A player can use the special ability listed on their character card.
Contain: A player can identify a 3, 4, 5, or 6 die set in their lab and contain one die from that set, placing it on the containment board. A set must be a run (1, 2, 3, etc.) or all the same number, and either way they have to be the same color or all different colors. After submitting one from their set to the containment board, the player can keep their remaining dice from that set as-is, or reroll it gaining a research card. The more dice leftover and rerolled the better the level of the research card received.
Research Card: While not an action, players are free to use them on their turn during the action phase.
2. THREAT PHASE: A player will find a removable die on the tesseract that is on the lowest level possible. Players can decide which to remove if two dice are tied for the lowest removable height. This die is placed in the primed area under its corresponding number. If this causes three or more dice to be under that slotted number, a breach occurs and the breach counter moves up by 1. After priming the die, players check to see if an icon was revealed on the tesseract’s base plate. These are bad events that typically speed up the rate at which the tesseract removes cubes.
Players continue taking turns in clockwise order until:
WINNING – All 24 die slots on the containment board are filled up. This involves containing 24 dice throughout the game. Players gain access to the special containment cards as number columns are completely filled up and can also add dice back to the tesseract if a containment row is filled up.
LOSING – The tesseract is out of cubes at the start of the threat phase or the breach tracker reaches the last space.
The above is an oversimplification of the rules, but should give you the general idea as to what the game is about.
The Review
Bias is unavoidable in any sort of review and I have to stress that in this case, we tend to favor cooperative games due to our competitive nature. She and I both hate to lose, but we have the sense to laugh about it when we do. We also favor dice manipulation games…in my case, I hate pure, random luck. I grew up playing “Chess” and I can be classified as a control-freak (a nice one if such a thing exists), so I hate it when dice screw you over due to no fault of your own. I’m pleased to say that we love “Tesseract” because it’s both cooperative and strategic. There’s dice rolling, but it can often be manipulated or mitigated in one way or another. Character abilities and research cards are paramount to keeping things from randomly blowing up in your face.
I’ll get my minor gripe out of the way. While the lazy susan is functional, I feel like it doesn’t sit 100% snugly in the mount. The dice setup sleeve is also a bit finicky, though I have arthritic hands so take that with a grain of salt. We were afraid to use the lazy susan and spin it for fear of launching dice into orbit or at least, into the next county. Having clumsy, arthritic hands slowed down the flow of gameplay for us, but mileage will vary from person to person. “I wish everything were bigger” is what I’m attempting to convey. The dice numbers / symbols also take some getting used to (count the dots for their value).
Chaining moves in this game to create some sort of amazing combo is oh-so-satisfying. 3 actions per turn may not seem like much, but special abilities and research cards (action free) can break the rules enough to create sets not at first conceivable. While the rules say to randomly assign a researcher / character to each player, I prefer to deal three and pick one or if I’m feeling cheeky, just pick one based on the mood I’m in. That is to say, if I’m in the mood to juggle a crapton of research cards I might just grab the computer programmer. I love the variety of different researchers in this game. This alone makes me want to come back to it and try new strategies and ways of playing.
The game features a solo mode as well, in which case you simply play two separate boards as if you were playing two players. While not in the rulebook, you can make the game easier by giving each player two researchers / characters to extend your available options during the game. You could also ignore the icons on the base plate. Some folks gasp in horror at the sheer thought of going off-script, but I find a custom-tailored difficulty is paramount to a happy gamer family / group. While I respect those who only play games as the developer intended, such a rigid line of thought is not for me. I go out of my way to create variants, modifications, and etc. because I find it fun.
I love the theme and the art. I’m a sci-fi heavy kinda guy and this pushed all the right buttons. “Tesseract” is very puzzle-y in the way it’s played as you’re always trying to find the best, most optimal set of moves to accomplish your goals. You may have an option to contain a particular die to complete a column, but come to realize that you need it to possibly complete some other set assuming you use this card to help you get there. The more you fill up your containment board, the more you have to manipulate to get those final dice in place. All the while, more and more dice get added to the primed area and trust me, breaches can occur very quickly. Deciding when to focus on containment and when to negate risks in the primed area by focusing your efforts there is a tricky yet satisfying endeavor. It’s also tough sometimes to decide how to deal with the primed area…I mean, you WANT to reduce them all to “0” and destroy them but it’s faster and more practical to spread them out. In this case, time is not your friend.
Do I recommend this title? Yes and yes. Aidalee liked it but I suspect I liked it more than she did. If you’re into cooperative games, this one won’t disappoint.
Box Quote: “Tesseract” is both a puzzle-y and satisfying cooperative experience. You won’t want to play just one game.
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Score: 8/10 (Great)
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